Childhood Memories
by PinkRose0106
Summary: A story-of-sorts about Dreambert and Anna (an OC) and their childhood, which consists of 'parts' of varying lengths. Mostly just an excuse to write cute kid stuff, so it'll be updated whenever I finish a part. The parts won't always be in order, so keep that in mind while reading. (Read & Review, please. May never be finished, depending on when I want to write it.)
1. Part 1 - Childhood Meeting

"Pi'illos are just selfish idiots who look like pillows."

"Nuh-uh! I bet they're nice!"

"Yeah, right, Anna. Like you've ever met one."

"Here, I'll prove it to you! I'll go out and meet a Pi'illo, then YOU get to see who's being a selfish idiot!"

"Riiiiiiight. I'll be waiting to tell King Antasma that you got kidnapped."

Why were all of her cousins jerks? Anna would never understand it. She was the direct heir, here! She was awesome! She could meet a Pi'illo, no problem. Dad always said she could leave the mountain whenever she wanted. She was up for a midnight fly anyway.

Anna flew out of Mount Pajamaja and went towards where all the Pi'illos were. She didn't like the big yellowish-orange ones (one of them tried to swat her away after she VERY CLEARLY told them she was a princess by birth and princesses weren't swatted away like bugs), so she avoided them altogether. She was pretty small, so it wasn't that hard.

She heard voices—a kid her age's voice—and her flying almost got her to crash-land on the stone outside Pi'illo Castle, but she swooped up and landed on her feet. Almost immediately, she saw a red Pi'illo who was playing with a few toys.

"Hey!" Anna shouted. She wasn't that far away from him, but who knew if Pi'illos could hear properly?

The Pi'illo turned to her. "Hi," he said.

"Are you a Pi'illo?" Anna asked. "I mean, I'm pretty sure you're a Pi'illo. Your head looks like a pillow, so I'm assuming you're a Pi'illo."

"I'm a Pi'illo," he confirmed. "I'm Prince Dreambert."

"Oh! So you're royal too?" Anna said. She got a little closer, and when he didn't pull away, she got close enough to sit across from him. "I'm Anna! I'm King Antasma's daughter. His ONLY daughter. And the bat who should totally take the throne one day because all her cousins are jerks!"

Dreambert smiled a little. "Do you want to play with me?"

"Sure!" Anna said, grinning. Not only was her cousin totally wrong, but she might actually have a new friend! She liked new friends. Friends weren't cousins that were completely obnoxious.

The two kids played for a little bit, occasionally talking about their lives and friends and stuff—Anna learned that Dreambert had NO FRIENDS. She couldn't even imagine how lonely he must be. No friends? That seemed like pure torture. He was also a year younger than her. Anna shared some things about herself as well—that all her male cousins were obnoxious, most of them were adults, but her few female cousins were OK. She also told him that she was among the youngest in her family, so she was always treated like the runt. That was ridiculously obnoxious. Dreambert didn't have any siblings or cousins or aunts or uncles or even grandparents; he and his parents were only children (Pi'illo law, maybe?), and his grandparents died sometime before he was born. It sounded rough.

Eventually, after dusk passed and fresh, pure moonlight started settling in, which made Anna sleepy yet invigorated at the same time, another Pi'illo came.

He hadn't even said anything and Anna already hated him.

"My prince," he said. Dreambert looked up, seeming as if he was in trouble. "It's time for you to go to bed now."

Dreambert nodded. "Okay," he said. He picked up the toys, and whispered to Anna, "Thanks for playing with me. But I have to go now or Eldream will try to punish me. Sorry."

Anna smiled to show that she had fun too. Dreambert brought the toys back with him to the entrance of the castle, looked back at Anna again, then hurried inside to follow the other Pi'illo.

Anna stood up, stretched, and went back to her own home as well.


	2. Part 2-1 - Anna's Birthday

(This is the first part that has more than on section in it. This is so then it isn't really long.)

It was Anna's eighth birthday and you better believe she was doing something fun.

She woke up waaaaaay before the other bats, scribbled a note (it mostly consisted of lines that almost resembled real words since no one bothered to teach her how to write) that said where she would be going. She said it out loud to make sure it sounded right:

"Dear whoever cares, I will be going out to play with friends today instead of sitting around doing whatever you wanted me to do. Tell Dad to keep my presents until after I get back—not one of them goes to any of my cousins! Sincerely, eight-year-old Anna."

Anna nodded at her work, made sure to place it in an obvious spot, and left.

It was just about dawn. Not as early as she thought it was—but in her defense, it's hard to tell the time when you're in a cave. Most bats ate and slept whenever they wanted to—there was no set bedtimes, not even for kids (which was awesome, by the way). A lot of them ate and slept at the same time, though.

Anna hoped he was up by now. 'He' being Dreambert; they became quick friends in the past two years, with infrequent meetings (mostly by chance). Judging by the other Pi'illos that were starting their day, he should be awake. If not awake, then awake enough that she can just fly into his window and wake him up.

That is exactly what Anna did. Reaching the castle and ducking through the only window with the curtains open, she landed on her feet triumphantly.

Dreambert was sitting on his bed, blinking at her.

"Guess what day it is." Anna said happily. "Guess, guess!"

"The day everyone decided to wake up the Pi'illo prince?" Dreambert tried. "I've had five people come into my room this morning—my father, Eldream, my mother, a servant, and you, in that order."

"You guessed wrong!" Anna replied. "It's my birthday! Happy me! I'm eight now!"

Dreambert yawned. "Happy birthday," he said. Geez, for a seven-year-old he could be really uninterested sometimes.

"I'm going to explore the island," Anna declared.

Dreambert nodded, forming his blankets around him in a sort of fort.

"And I'm taking you with me!" She finished.

"What?" Dreambert asked. He was looking straight at her, with a little bit of excitement and fear. "I-I can't go. I have stuff to do, and I need to sleep more, and I haven't even had breakfast yet, and—"

"You can eat on the way!" Anna said. "Please? You're just about my coolest friend. Sure, you can't fly—not like I can, anyway—but you're a Pi'illo! You're awesome! You're DREAMBERT, for crying out loud! Come on, please?"

Dreambert pulled some of his blankets closer to him, but eventually looked defeated. "Fine. Let me eat breakfast, tell my parents, and I'll meet you outside the castle. Okay?"

"Yup!" Anna said. "I'll see you there." She paused for a second. "And, uh, can you get me some food too? I forgot to eat before I left the mountain and I'm getting hungry."

"I'll see what I can do," Dreambert promised. He spread out his blankets again, and left the room. Anna did the same via the window, and flew down to the front of the castle and waited.

…

It took about twenty minutes for Dreambert to come back out again.

"How long does it take you to eat?" Anna asked, more than a little impatiently.

Dreambert brought out a fancily detailed plate with muffins on it. After a small bit of hesitation, Anna took one and began eating. She was pleased that they where chocolate.

"I had to tell my parents, too," Dreambert said. "What do you tell yours?"

"I don't tell them anything," Anna replied. She waited a few moments to finish the muffin before she continued. "My dad doesn't really care—well, not directly, anyway. No one's quite sure what happened to my mom, so she can't care too much. I normally just leave a letter saying I'll be back, and then leave before anyone can question me face-to-face."

"Sometimes that's easier," Dreambert agreed. "I can't get away with it, though, or I get in trouble."

"The woes of only children," Anna mourned. Dreambert nodded silently.

Anna took ate the remaining muffins and Dreambert gently sat the plate down on the ground just outside the castle.

"Do you know where we're going?" Dreambert asked, turning to look at her.

"Nope."

The expression on Dreambert's face was something similar to unsurprised annoyance. Anna had a vague feeling she'd be seeing that a lot.

"All I know is that it has to be someplace other than the mountain," Anna said. "I want to explore the rest of the island, not the same place I live in every day."

It took a few moments, but Dreambert eventually said, "I agree."

"What if we go to the forest?"

"Then I'll have to talk to the Pi'illo Masters."

"What about the plains?"

"I'm pretty sure that there are tons of monsters there."

"Desert?"

"We'll dehydrate after being there for five minutes."

"Beach?"

"…I don't like crabs."

"OH COME ON!"

They just looked at each other for a few moments. Then Dreambert looked over to the west. "Wait. I actually know where we can go."

"Onward to adventure then!" Anna said. Dreambert nodded and lead the way.


	3. Part 2-2 - First Adventure

Anna and Dreambert wandered around aimlessly for a while, eventually finding themselves my the mountain. It wasn't Anna's first choice, but it felt different exploring with a friend, so she didn't mind. She barely went much farther than she needed to anyway—admittedly, she didn't like the dark all that much. But having a friend who was much more scared than she was made her feel braver.

Dreambert followed Anna clumsily.

"You're really good at this, aren't you?" Anna asked, trying out that thing the adults called "sarcasm."

"Give me a break!" Dreambert protested. "The only thing I've ever been able to explore is my room and the hallways connecting it to the entrance; plus, I've never exactly been encouraged to play with swords or anything."

"I heard that swords were sharp." Anna said, getting distracted from her main point.

"Someone once told me that they were called 'swords' because, when you're struck by one, you say 'swear words'…whatever that means," Dreambert said. "But you're changing the subject! Case in point, my parents are hoping I become pampered so I don't get in any trouble."

"Have I ever told you how not-fun you could be sometimes?" Anna asked. "I swear, sometimes you sound just like an adult."

"I will take a note of that to tell my parents when we get back," Dreambert said. "Oh, and speaking of which, my parents want me back by tomorrow so—"

"Yes, yes, I know, having parents who hover over you is horrible." Anna replied, waving her wing dismissively. "Don't worry! I still have presents to open and my cousins will claim them if I'm not home by midnight."

Dreambert didn't look too convinced, but didn't make any further contributions to the conversation. They continued walking around in silence for a little bit. Anna tried her best to lead the poorly-following Dreambert to the top of the mountain. Even if they didn't go anywhere new, Anna wanted to show him what it looked and felt like to stare down at the rest of the island. It made her feel smaller, but bigger at the same time.

"Where are all the bats?" Dreambert asked. "I'll be honest, it's a bit scarier when I don't know where they are."

"If you're worried about them hurting you, you're fine," Anna said. "They'll drag me back to the caves before they'd even think about hurting you. You're a prince! Dad wouldn't ever hurt you, and I think the same can be said for the other bats."

"Where do you guys live, though?" Dreambert said.

"Down in the caves. There's a really complex system—they've been there for years, and whatever the adults do with them has kept them stable. I would love to show you, but bringing you around the mountain is different than bringing you inside the mountain."

"I thought you just said they wouldn't hurt me!"

"They won't! But I'd get in trouble. You might, too."

"Yes, but—"

Anna cut him off by saying, "Oh! We're here! Come on! This is the best place in the entire island, honest!" She stood there waiting for him to catch up before quickly losing her patience, flying into the air, and picking him up to bring him there herself. The area was relatively small, but there was a child-sized hole that led to a little cave completely cut off from the rest of the caves.

Dreambert looked over to the other cave, seemed to make a mental note to himself, and then followed Anna into the smaller cave.

"Well, Dreambert," Anna said, "Congrats on completing your first adventure?"

"First?" Dreambert echoed. "Anna, I barely managed to survive a normal trip up Mount Pajamaja! What makes you think I can do it again?"

"You'll get used to it," Anna said. "Do you want me to bring you home, or are you good?"

"I think there's a warp pipe around here. I'll just take that home." Dreambert replied simply. "But thank you for the offer."

Anna smiled. "No problem!"

The two continued to talk happily about what to do next.


End file.
